Offline Prospecting Methods - What Works / What Does Not

[maildigger]

This works really well but you need to invest some time in it...

- Build a simple website for a specific niche
- Get it a top 3 ranking
- Call up companies in that niche and ask to speak to the person who's responsable for the marketing
- Ask them if they would be interested in being on top of Google
- Show them the website as a prove of your expertise
- Sell them one of your services

 

[Alkanphel]

1. Hiring a Professional Telemarketer (NOT PLURAL...just one dude)
He was expensive, but he provided his own leads and script, and had 100% accountability of the time I purchased from him. I had him closing deals, but he also did appointment setting, which I would actually prefer for things like G Places and ORM packages.

I interviewed three pro telemarketers before bringing one on board. I was actually pretty surprised at the other two allowing me to say no to them and just accepting it. The guy I eventually hired closed me during the interview.

Where are you hiring you pro telemarketers from?

 

[cruzino]

Hire a salesperson who has experience selling directly to businesses. Yellow pages, telephone services, etc. They know how to get appointments and close deals. It takes a lot of time to master it, so a good salesperson with this experience is gold.

 

[cody41]

Question of landing pages for specific niches: has anyone successfully gone the route of a subdomain off their main seo site, ranked that subdomain and then proved to a prospective client that you can make it work for them?

 

[squidkai1]

I think hiring a salesperson is the way to go on a large scale. It's kind of like buying a car. If you are not good at talking down the price of the car to a salesperson, always outsource it and take someone with you that knows how to do it. It helps.

 

[Taktical]

I think hiring a salesperson is the way to go on a large scale. It's kind of like buying a car. If you are not good at talking down the price of the car to a salesperson, always outsource it and take someone with you that knows how to do it. It helps.

easier said than done. good salespeople dont grow on trees

 

[420money]

Any tips on follow-ups after a mailing has been sent out?

I have read about leaving a voicemail after hours. Is this better than calling the place and asking for the biz owner?

 

[Taktical]

Any tips on follow-ups after a mailing has been sent out?

I have read about leaving a voicemail after hours. Is this better than calling the place and asking for the biz owner?

the usually rule for biz owners is calling after 5pm or before 9am, when the secretary or gatekeeper isn't around.

 

[randomsoftwaregroup]

Aside from the Google places method, one way we have great success with is using smaller business directories like MerchantCircle, Manta, and etc.

Pick a niche you want to target and develop a document showing them "exactly" how to optimize their listing to the fullest. Almost none of them have completed listings. Be sure and show the wrong way, the missing information, & etc right next to the right way and why filling everything out helps. Also, the "perfect" listing you compare the "bad" one to would be your listing. Call it free advertising, with out advertising

You can then just email clients with the header "Your ABC directory listing" and give the report away for free (Put a small sales pitch below your signature). We get many calls thanking us for the report, and asking us to do it for them ... charge cheap because it is the in you need to make them happy and upsell your true service.

If your a cold caller, call as a "Verification Listing Specialist". Go over their information, and you just "happen" to notice they are missing things. Ask if they would like to receive a report showing them how to get the most out of their listing. Almost all say yes. Send it, and let them know they can contact you if they need any help. Many will call back. Others you can follow up with to see if they have any questions on enhancing their listing, and you can get more to help. Again, this is a in you can charge $29-$99+, as you "in" service ... wow them, then upsell.

Our telemarketers are doing very well with this approach because you are not "selling" anything. You are just verifying listings, and offering free help.

 

[xziler8r]

Just wanted to confirm this really really does work and well!

We have a few telemarketers who are starting to do this too and the responsive where we are is phenominal - we even have business owners calling back asking about the status and most are friendly and open about receiving the report.

Aside from the Google places method, one way we have great success with is using smaller business directories like MerchantCircle, Manta, and etc.

Pick a niche you want to target and develop a document showing them "exactly" how to optimize their listing to the fullest. Almost none of them have completed listings. Be sure and show the wrong way, the missing information, & etc right next to the right way and why filling everything out helps. Also, the "perfect" listing you compare the "bad" one to would be your listing. Call it free advertising, with out advertising

You can then just email clients with the header "Your ABC directory listing" and give the report away for free (Put a small sales pitch below your signature). We get many calls thanking us for the report, and asking us to do it for them ... charge cheap because it is the in you need to make them happy and upsell your true service.

If your a cold caller, call as a "Verification Listing Specialist". Go over their information, and you just "happen" to notice they are missing things. Ask if they would like to receive a report showing them how to get the most out of their listing. Almost all say yes. Send it, and let them know they can contact you if they need any help. Many will call back. Others you can follow up with to see if they have any questions on enhancing their listing, and you can get more to help. Again, this is a in you can charge $29-$99+, as you "in" service ... wow them, then upsell.

Our telemarketers are doing very well with this approach because you are not "selling" anything. You are just verifying listings, and offering free help.

 

[dragon123]

If your a cold caller, call as a "Verification Listing Specialist". Go over their information, and you just "happen" to notice they are missing things. Ask if they would like to receive a report showing them how to get the most out of their listing. Almost all say yes. Send it, and let them know they can contact you if they need any help. Many will call back. Others you can follow up with to see if they have any questions on enhancing their listing, and you can get more to help. Again, this is a in you can charge $29-$99+, as you "in" service ... wow them, then upsell.

That's an excellent strategy, going to try that today!..

 

[randomsoftwaregroup]

Another method we use is the "If you rank it someone will pay".

It is a bit of a spin from make a website and selling the adspace, or links. First, lets skip the ranking step and assume you got that covered and go to the site set up.

1) Use a WordPress Blog with the most basic template you can find
2) Find the first local company you want to call
3) Go into the header.php file and put in a <h1>sales header and then an iframe for the potential clients site
<center><h1>Local Sales On Miami Blue Widgets</h1>
<iframe src="hxxp://clientssite.com" width=1200 height=2000><iframe>
You will want to make the width and height large enough to encompass the size of any size, not just to fit your initial clients site.
4) Remove the header graphic and anything else that would be distracting
5) Cut and paste everything in the sidebar.php and put it into the very bottom of the footer.php file this helps lose the impression that this is a "blog".
6) Change the posts per page to 1
7) Follow all normal optimization methods and get it ranked.

Now realize that all these clients spent money on their site ... and many times a whole lot so they are in love with it. With that is mind which would be an easier sell ... "Mr. Blue widget seller, I have this site ranked for your main keyword would you like to buy adspace on it for your site?" (Or any of the other methods). Or "Mr. Blue Widget seller, I took the liberty of ranking you for your main keyword, here is your ranking, and here is your full site ... " Then show the blog.

Of course the positive response is "Wow, that is my site, how can I keep it there?" If there is hesitation, simply say "I do not want to push you into anything, but let me know soon because Mr. ABC Blue Widgets contacted me today wanting his site there".

Make sure ABC Blue Widgets is an actual company in their town. Now if they do not buy, go to the next company with the same pitch.

Want to get fancy ... put a little random script in and you can rotate 2 or more companies in the header and sell the space more than once.

Want to try and get the most ... auction the space off to the highest bidder.

Want to charge more ... build a mini blog network and show 100 rankings.

My writing skills stick, so hope this was explained well enough. And you do not have to cold call. A directory verification email with a pitch in it, or a direct email with the header "Question?" body :
Do you want to keep this? (Or some other quick question)
Search listing URL
yoursiteforthem.com

 

[theag]

Another method we use is the "If you rank it someone will pay".

It is a bit of a spin from make a website and selling the adspace, or links. First, lets skip the ranking step and assume you got that covered and go to the site set up.

1) Use a WordPress Blog with the most basic template you can find
2) Find the first local company you want to call
3) Go into the header.php file and put in a <h1>sales header and then an iframe for the potential clients site
<center><h1>Local Sales On Miami Blue Widgets</h1>
<iframe src="hxxp://clientssite.com" width=1200 height=2000><iframe>
You will want to make the width and height large enough to encompass the size of any size, not just to fit your initial clients site.
4) Remove the header graphic and anything else that would be distracting
5) Cut and paste everything in the sidebar.php and put it into the very bottom of the footer.php file this helps lose the impression that this is a "blog".
6) Change the posts per page to 1
7) Follow all normal optimization methods and get it ranked.

Now realize that all these clients spent money on their site ... and many times a whole lot so they are in love with it. With that is mind which would be an easier sell ... "Mr. Blue widget seller, I have this site ranked for your main keyword would you like to buy adspace on it for your site?" (Or any of the other methods). Or "Mr. Blue Widget seller, I took the liberty of ranking you for your main keyword, here is your ranking, and here is your full site ... " Then show the blog.

Of course the positive response is "Wow, that is my site, how can I keep it there?" If there is hesitation, simply say "I do not want to push you into anything, but let me know soon because Mr. ABC Blue Widgets contacted me today wanting his site there".

Make sure ABC Blue Widgets is an actual company in their town. Now if they do not buy, go to the next company with the same pitch.

Want to get fancy ... put a little random script in and you can rotate 2 or more companies in the header and sell the space more than once.

Want to try and get the most ... auction the space off to the highest bidder.

Want to charge more ... build a mini blog network and show 100 rankings.

My writing skills stick, so hope this was explained well enough. And you do not have to cold call. A directory verification email with a pitch in it, or a direct email with the header "Question?" body :
Do you want to keep this? (Or some other quick question)
Search listing URL
yoursiteforthem.com

sounds nice in theory but wouldnt the site drop in rankings if the content changes dramatically and is included in an iframe?

 

[randomsoftwaregroup]

No content from the clients site in the frame is counted as you know SE's cannot read it. You would post highly optimized content in the blog, that would be below the fold to keep it ranked. In addition, since each post creates it's own page (Where the client would still be in the header), you could continue to have them rank for additional keywords for each blog post you make. You can then either just make the client more happy with the additional rankings, or slowly raise the price for each ranked terms and increase in traffic.

And when it comes to content (Regardless of quality) below the squeeze page portion, it does not effect conversions no matter how long the page. We have tested this 1,000's of times and ten mile long pages with a framed site at the top did not convert any low than just the site itself.

 

[theag]

jeah I get the part about the subpages, but what about the mainpage? do you just keep some highly optimized content in the footer + links to the subpages and this is enough to keep the page ranked?

 

[RicherJack]

I've had a great deal of success with referrals and word of mouth marketing. I do need to start up regular marketing and prospecting activities though.

Very interested in adapting this Google Places packet or letter to sell LOGO DESIGN, WEB DESIGN & SEO services locally.

Has anyone accomplished something similar?

 

[sownbob]

Grea tips here.

I probably would suck at coldcalling but I love the idea of video marketing. Does anybody have any experience with getting interest from clients this way.

There was a pretty good WSO about making mobile websites, something like My Mobile Business In a Box. One of the methods to get clients was to start off with a e-mail (just regular mail) asking if the client could use an extra few clients per month and than saying that you shot a quick video for them explaining them what you did. So, then you show them the before website on a mobile phone and the new mockup site and probably some explaination and statistics about mobile use and what the benefits are.

I'm tempted to do video marketing this but just wondering if anybody else has any experience and tips?